The effects of noise due to random undetected tilts and paleosecular variation on regional paleomagnetic directions

Journal of Geophysical Research
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Abstract

Random tilting of a single paleomagnetic vector produces a distribution of vectors which is not rotationally symmetric about the original vector and therefore not Fisherian. Monte Carlo simulations were performed on two types of vector distributions: (1) distributions of vectors formed by perturbing a single original vector with a Fisher distribution of bedding poles (each defining a tilt correction) and (2) standard Fisher distributions. These simulations demonstrate that inclinations of vectors drawn from both distributions are biased toward shallow inclinations. There is a greater likelihood of statistically “drawing” a vector shallower than the true mean vector than of drawing one that is steeper. The estimated probability increases as a function of angular dispersion and inclination of the true mean vector. Consequently, the interpretation of inclination-only data from either type of distribution is not straightforward, especially when the expected paleolatitude is greater than about 50°. Because of the symmetry of the two distributions, declinations of vectors in each distribution are unbiased. The Fisher mean direction of the distribution of vectors formed by perturbing a single vector with random undetected tilts is biased toward shallow inclinations, but this bias is insignificant for angular dispersions of bedding poles less than 20°. This observation implies that the mean pole calculated from a large set of paleomagnetic directions obtained for coeval rocks over a region will be effectively unbiased by random undetected tilts of those rocks provided the angular dispersion of the undetected tilts is less than about 20°. However, the bias of the mean can be significant for large (>20°) angular dispersion of tilts. The amount of bias of the mean direction maximizes at about 10°–12° in mid-latitude regions but is usually less than 8°. Consequently, large (>12°) inclination discordances are probably not the result of random undetected tilts, even if the angular dispersion of the tilts exceeds 20°.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title The effects of noise due to random undetected tilts and paleosecular variation on regional paleomagnetic directions
Series title Journal of Geophysical Research
DOI 10.1029/90JB02457
Volume 96
Issue B3
Year Published 1991
Language English
Publisher American Geophysical Union
Description 5 p.
First page 3973
Last page 3977
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